The Inbetweeners 2 laughs its way to the top spot

An explosive entry to the top spot for the sequel to The Inbetweeners, which conquered the top spot with an incredible £12,538,114, which means the comedy the biggest opening weekend of the year so far. The Inbetweeners 2 made £2.75m on its opening day, 6 August, a record for a live-action comedy at the UK box office, however failed to beat the takings of the first Inbetweeners movie, which opened with £13.2m in 2011. Three years ago the debut instalment took a gross of £45m in the UK, so the sequel is well on its way to meeting and possibly beating this figure.

The new instalment sees Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Blake Harrison and James Buckley reprise their roles as Will, Simon, Neil and Jay, as they reunite in Australia.

The film was received generally positively by British critics, with Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph, stating “Perhaps the biggest compliment you could pay the film, apart from that it’s by and large hysterically funny, is that it is unmistakably film-like, with a smoothly arcing plot and gross-out moments staged with the verve and ceremony of an action-movie set-piece.” In Australia, where the film was set, it was received to mixed comments with Matthew Toomey, a film critic for 612 ABC Brisbane, stating, “Don’t expect a deep, underlying narrative. This is just a bunch of horny teenagers doing really dumb things. To each their own… but I was entertained. First and foremost, it shocked me – and that’s not easy given how many movies I watch. It pushes the envelope a lot further than I expected and I’d highly recommend seeing the film in a packed cinema. The audience reactions would be hilarious.”

On the topic of a sequel, the cast, now approaching their thirties, suggested we won’t see an Inbetweeners 3 with Simon Bird (Will) stating, “Once you see the film you’ll see it feels like they’ve all moved on with their lives, so unfortunately this is it. It’s a great way of saying goodbye.”

Despite being shot off the top spot, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy still enjoyed a brilliant £3,332,179 intake of cinema ticket sales over the weekend. This brings its total in the UK to £13,840,330, after eleven days on release, and means it will shortly overtake Thor’s £14.04 UK haul and may even surpass Iron Man 2’s £21.2m as the third highest Marvel earner in the UK.

New entry came from computer animated adventure comedy Planes 2: Fire and Rescue which went nationwide last weekend and brought in £1,138,896 in cinema tickets. The sequel sees Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Danny Mann, and Cedric the Entertainer reprise their roles of Skipper, Chug, Dottie, Sparky, and Leadbottom, respectively. The plot follows new plane Dusty as he learns that his engine is damaged and he may never race again and as he joins a forest fire and rescue unit to be trained as a firefighter. The movie received generally mixed reviews with Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times stating, “In 3-D, the fire fighting scenes are visually striking – with plumes of smoke and chemical dust – though the backgrounds, like other aspects of the film, lack dimension.”

How to Train Your Dragon 2 fell two places this week to round off the top five at five with £893,792 and amounting its gross on its seventh week on release to £19,498,676.

Secret Cinema’s current production of Back to the Future was up one place at six in its second weekend, making an extra £522,863 and grossing £1,416,488, whilst comedy The Nut Job fell one at seven last weekend to bring in £458,360 and also on its second weekend on release total £1,772,492.

Hercules and The Purge: Anarchy were both the biggest fallers as they dropped four places to eight and nine, both on their third week on release. Hercules contributed £423,677 to make its gross in the UK at £4,631,015 while The Purge: Anarchy brought in £320,365 to make £3,969,494, which beats it predecessor which made £3.2m in total.

Rounding of the top ten is action Transformers: Age of Extinction whose gross in the UK stands at £19,074,771 following a £174,300 weekend and may struggle to hit the £20m mark.

Ending its UK haul is the latest Step Up instalment, Step Up 5: All In, which grossed £908,912 at twelfth place and will end its run as the lowest grosser of the series.

Next week expect the exciting release of ensemble action film The Expendables 3, crime thriller Blood Ties and Australian drama The Rover.